Bettencourt former accountant 'helped daughter in fight for fortune'

A former accountant for a L'Oréal heiress has been accused of being paid by
the billionaire's estranged daughter for assistance in a fight over her
mother's mental fitness to run her fortune.

L'Oreal-heiress Liliane BettencourtPhoto: EPA

By Henry Samuel in Paris

3:58PM BST 03 Sep 2010

Claire Thibout, an accountant for Liliane Bettencourt for 10 years, received a letter from Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers dated 11 July 2007 promising to "help" her should she be fired for speaking out about her mother's allegedly rapacious and manipulative entourage – in particular a society photographer friend.

The daughter subsequently took the photographer, François-Marie Banier to court for "abuse of weakness" after the 87-year old Mrs Bettencourt handed him paintings, money and other gifts worth almost a billion euros.

Miss Thibaut later told investigators that in her view Mr Banier was manipulating her former employer. A political scandal then erupted after she claimed that Mrs Bettencourt's aides had given envelopes of cash to Nicolas Sarkozy's former party treasurer to support his 2007 campaign for the French presidency, before making a partial retraction.

It went onto say that if the accountant was sacked, Miss Bettencourt-Meyers pledged to pay her the difference between her dismissal fee and the sum of 800,000 euros.

The terms of the agreement, she went on, must "naturally remain confidential".

Georges Kiejman, Mrs Bettencourt lawyer, said the letter proved that there was a "pact of corruption" between the daughter and the accountant to stitch up his client, France's richest woman, who has always denied being manipulated by her entourage.

The letter discredited Miss Thibout's testimony and explained why she was so active in seeking to turn other members of Mrs Bettencourt's domestic staff against her entourage, he claimed.

Mrs Bettencourt-Meyer's lawyer, Olivier Metzner, denied this, saying his client had only offered money to the accountant to honour a promise she made to her father, André Bettencourt to look after Miss Thibaut. He said that, in any case, Mrs Bettencourt-Meyers had no intention at that stage of starting a law suit.